Gaidar Reform Plan Draws Dissatisfaction'

Parliament has voted to express dissatisfaction with the market reforms of acting Prime Minister Yegor Gaidar, demanding that his government work out a package of anti-crisis measures within a month.


The decision came late on Friday and amounted to an official response to Gaidar's defense of his program before the legislature last week.


Legislators also gave preliminary approval to a draft law on government that, if adopted, would strip President Boris Yeltsin of the right to appoint his cabinet directly.


In two weeks time the law on government will get a second reading. If lawmakers accept it then parliament will have the final say in Yeltsin's selection of ministers and the prime minister.


Yeltsin appointed the present cabinet without parliamentary approval after was given emergency executive powers in the aftermath of the attempted coup of August, 1991.


But Yeltsin's special powers are due to expire in December and the Supreme Soviet signalled on Friday that it planned to lose no time in challenging them, setting a firm date of Dec. 1 to convene the Congress of People's Deputies.


The Supreme Soviet, Russia's smaller working parliament, voted 145 to 33 with five abstentions in favor of a resolution that calls the Gaidar government's progress on reform "unsatisfactory". Sixty-five deputies were absent for the vote.


However, because only the Congress of People's Deputies has the power to dismiss the government, the decision does not carry the weight of a no-confidence vote.


It does require the government to offer parliament a program of urgent measures needed for the end of this year and the first three months of 1993, amid signs that Russia's economy continues in free fall.


Coming after Yeltsin's address to parliament last week, when he urged "corrections" in the government's economic policies, parliament's resolutions would appear to have forced the government into a corner.


But a spokesman for Andrei Nechayev, the Gaidar team's economics minister who was criticized by Yeltsin last week, said that the government intended to stick to its plan.


Parliament may be able to force out the Gaidar government after the Congress of People's Deputies convenes in December.


Yeltsin had hoped to have the Congress postponed until next spring or, failing that, at least until January. To that effect, the president had agreed with parliament speaker Ruslan Khasbulatov to try to postpone the Congress.


That deal apparently fell through on Friday, as Khasbulatov was unable or unwilling to fend off the government's opponents, who enjoy a majority in the Supreme Soviet of over two to one.